1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to antenna systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to high power microwave antennas, arrays thereof and components therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
High power microwave antennas are being considered for various area defense applications such as airport protection. For such applications, a high power microwave beam is to be directed to an incoming missile for the purpose of disrupting and confusing the guidance system of the missile to render it incapable of completing its mission. For an airport application, the system would be required to protect aircraft landing and taking off along the airports runway(s). Hence, at least two phased array systems are required, one for each runway direction (180 degrees apart).
Other airport configurations may have multiple runways oriented perpendicularly from each other. These airports could require 3 or 4 phased array systems to protect aircraft in the takeoff and landing scenarios for each runway. Such an airport protection system would be expensive using conventional teachings. The addition of multiple phased array antenna systems will probably make the approach infeasible for airport protection.
Moreover, for the illustrative area defense and other applications, it is necessary or desirable to transmit a considerable amount of energy at a high power level. Unfortunately, the switching of microwave energy at high power levels is problematic and poses a significant cost constraint on any system attempting to do so.
Hence, a need exists in the art for a system or method for irradiating and/or receiving microwave energy at high power levels in large volumes at low cost.